Valentine's
by sephydark
Summary: America shows up at England's house unexpectedly to celebrate Valentine's day.


England never celebrated Valentine's day on Valentine's day. He never saw why he had to; it was just as easy to exchange gifts and spend a romantic evening the next week. In fact it was quite a bit easier, because everybody else wasn't trying to do the same thing. When England first told America of his tradition America had protested that celebrating Valentines a week late was just not the same, but England had eventually managed to persuade him. So, when February fourteenth came around, England had no reason to think that it would be different from any other day.

That was why, when he heard someone knocking on his door, England did not hurry to answer it. Perhaps, he thought, if he did took long enough to get there whoever it was would figure he was out and leave. But the person did not leave. If anything, the knocking became more insistent as time passed.

When England finally did open the door, he was a little surprised to find America waiting for him on the other side. He was even more surprised to see that America was dressed more nicely than usual. "What are you doing here?" asked England. "I wasn't expecting you for another week."

"I know, but everyone else celebrates today. It's lonely being the only one without a date."

"Alright, but we won't really be doing anything. My plans are all for next week."

"That's okay. I made reservations for dinner, and I have something awesome planned for afterwards," America said excitedly. "We eat in..." here he glanced down at his watch, "about an hour, so you should probably get ready. Be sure to dress nice."

"Wait," England said hurriedly. "What are we going to do?"

"It's a secret! Just go change and stuff. I don't want us to be late."

England went to his room, wondering what could have America so excited. Not that it was hard to excite America. His first thought was that they were going to one of those movies America was always so proud of, but he wouldn't need to dress up for something like that.

America's reservations turned out to be at a French restaurant on the other side of town, which had excellent food (as much as he hated France, England had to admit that the frog could cook). England was a bit surprised to find that America was taking him someplace so nice; usually when they went out to eat America preferred casual restaurants.

As they left England decided to try to get America to tell him what they were going to do one last time. "Come on, just tell me. Is it really that important that I not know where we're going?"

"If you knew it would ruin the surprise," Alfred replied. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll love it." Damn. England had really wanted to know what sort of thing he should be preparing himself for. He supposed he should prepare for the worst anyways, because America often had rather strange ideas about what constituted a romantic date.

The rest of the drive passed in relative silence. England tried to strike up a conversation a couple of times, but America always seemed too busy figuring out where he was going to talk, so England stopped. His mind began to drift to the plans he had made for next week, running through them in his head one more time to make sure everything was okay. He became so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice they had stopped in front of a theater until America said, "We're here."

England stared at the theater in front of him. He knew what was playing there. "Hamlet?" he said. "You're taking me to see Hamlet? I never expected you to be so thoughtful."

"It's Valentine's day. And I know how much you love Shakespeare," America replied, drawing England into a hug.

England's face turned extremely pink. "G-get off me, git," he said, shoving America away from him. "That doesn't give you permission to hug me in public, you know."

"But--but England," said America, starting to pout, "you're supposed to hug on Valentine's day." England gave him a look that said "no way" so clearly that even he couldn't misinterpret it. "Can we at least hold hands then?"

"Oh, fine." England held his hand out so America could grab it. "But nothing more." America seized England's hand immediately, his mood turning around almost instantly. England rolled his eyes at how quickly America seemed able to recover from things, but ended up smiling nonetheless as they went into the theater. Tonight was going to be a good night.

As England saw America off the next day, he remembered to thank Alfred for the previous evening, because he really had had a wonderful time. He only hoped that his plans for next week would go just as well.


End file.
